Happy Samhain!

Graphic by Tifany12, via Wikimedia Commons

Happy Samhain to all who celebrate!  And to those in the Southern Hemisphere, Happy Beltane!


May the Lord and Lady bring you many blessings this season!

Be back soon!

Feeling a bit under the weather and will be taking a few days off to rest.  The ongoing giveaways will be extended until Nov. 1, so get those entries in!  If I don't see you before then, Happy Halloween!  Happy Samhain!  And for those in the southern hemisphere, Happy Beltane!




This is post (and photos) copyright to the author. It may not be reposted, reprinted or distributed in its entirety without express written permission of the author. Links to the article can be freely shared and are very appreciated!

Giveaway from Marie Segal's Art from My Heart!

Today we start a giveaway for this completely adorable Halloween cupcake necklace from Marie Segal's Art from My heart!  Here's how to enter!

REQUIREMENTS
Visit Art From Heart on Etsy, then come back here and leave the URL an item that you just love (it won't be hard to find one!).
This entry will not count if I have no way to reach you if you win.  If your profile is private, there's no blog or email connected to it, or you aren't sure,  you must leave an email address with your entries.  If a winner is picked and I have no way to contact that person, a new winner will be selected.

OPTIONAL
For extra entries, you many do any or all of the following.  Each requires a separate post in comments.

• Blog about this giveaway (1 entry)  Leave a comment to this post with the URL of your blog post.
• Be or become a follower of the Art From My Heart blog (1 entry - and make sure to check out her awesome DIY posts!)
• Tweet about this giveaway, with a link back to this page.  Leave the URL of your tweet in comments.  This entry is available daily (up to 7 entries; leave a comment for each individual tweet).
• Visit Marie's Word Press blog and leave a message. Leave a comment here that you did so. (1 entry)
• Be or become a friend of Marie Segal on Facebook.  Leave a comment here that you did so. (1 entry)

PLEASE NOTE: Comment moderation, as always, is on.  You won't see your post immediately, but it's there - no need to repost.  =)

Contest ends on Oct. 25, 2011 at noon EST, with a winner selected by random number generator and announced shortly thereafter.  Giveaway is open worldwide.

Entries must be in English.  Entries containing URL links not connected to this giveaway will be considered spam and deleted.

This is post  copyright to the author. Photos copyright to Marie Segal and used with permission  They may not be reposted, reprinted or distributed  without express written permission of the copyright holder. Links to the article can be freely shared and are very appreciated!

Giveaway: The Witches Book of the Dead

THIS CONTEST CLOSED AS OF OCT. 24

I don't think that anyone would disagree that Christian Day is a colorful character who has, once or twice, created a bit of controversy in the world of witchcraft.  After reading The Witches Book of the Dead myself, I can say that despite anyone's ideas on the man himself, his knowledge of the topic of witchcraft as it pertains to the dead can not be questioned.

This book is filled with amazing information on necromancy, spirit contact, getting rid of unwanted entities, ancestral worship, mediumship - tons of amazing info.

If you're one of the many people who search for books that are passed the basics of "Wicca 101" books, past the basics of magic and witchcraft, this book should be on your reading list.

And someone is going to win a copy!


REQUIREMENTS
Leave a message in comments saying you want to enter. 
This entry will not count if I have no way to reach you if you win.  If your profile is private, there's no blog or email connected to it, or you aren't sure,  you must leave an email address with your entries.  If a winner is picked and I have no way to contact that person, a new winner will be selected.

OPTIONAL
For extra entries, you many do any or all of the following.  Each requires a separate post in comments.

• Blog about this giveaway (1 entry), including the name of the book and a link back to this page.  Leave a comment to this post with the URL of your blog post.
• Be or become a follower of Weiser Books on Twitter. (1 entry)
• Tweet about this giveaway, with a link back to this page.  Leave the URL of your tweet in comments.  This entry is available daily (up to 7 entries; leave a comment for each individual tweet).
• Visit the Weiser Books Blog and leave a message. Leave a comment here that you did so. (1 entry)
• Be or become a follower of Red Wheel Weiser Books on Facebook.  Leave a comment here that you did so. (1 entry)

PLEASE NOTE: Comment moderation, as always, is on.  You won't see your post immediately, but it's there - no need to repost.  =)

Contest ends on Oct. 24, 2011 at noon EST, with a winner selected by random number generator and announced shortly thereafter.  Giveaway is open worldwide.

Entries must be in English.  Entries containing URL links not connected to this giveaway will be considered spam and deleted.

This is post (and photos) copyright to the author. It may not be reposted, reprinted or distributed in its entirety without express written permission of the author. Links to the article can be freely shared and are very appreciated!

Winner of the Raven Grimassi book is....

Thanks to everyone who popped in and entered to win the wonderful book Old World Witchcraft by Raven Grimassi!  If you aren't the winner, seriously, put it on your list for Yule (or just buy it).  It's really that good.

And so, the winner, chosen by an online random number generator is (insert drum roll here)......

Have you met Rupert?

If you are a Pagan parent or someone who buys books for Pagan kids, you're probably already aware of the lack of books - and quite frankly a lack of quality books - in the genre.  While both fiction and non-fiction books in this area for teens has really been starting to come around in the last few years, books for the younger set really lag behind.

That was the first reason that I was excited to get a copy of Rupert's Tales: The Wheel of the Year - Beltane, Litha, Lammas, Mabon by Kyrja.  A book about an adorable rabbit and sabbats?  Yes, please!  Then I picked up the book to flip through it, and holy hey the illustrations!  Seriously, if my kids were younger, I'd absolutely be buying a second copy of this book so that I could frame and hang the illustrations on the wall.    Did I mention adorable rabbit?  In addition there are fairies, the sun and moon, other creatures and gorgeous nature pictures - all done in super rich colors and beautiful detail.  Even kids who don't read independently yet will want to sit and flip through Tonia Benningon Osborn's gorgeous illustrations over and over.  (And I might yet put the picture of the on page 7, of women standing, hands clasped, in a circle on my own wall.)

And then, finally, I sat down to read the stories.  Rupert's Tales is done in rhyme, in that sing-song rhythm that is just begging to be read aloud.  As Rupert meets friends who help him learn about the sabbats, those who read or listen learn a great many lessons themselves as natural parts of the story.  In "Rupert's First Beltane", Rupert learns the meaning of Beltane from a owl. At one point of the story, he meets some impressive new friends:

"But when he turned to look at her, standing in the white owl's place,
Was She who has many names and man who had green leaves for His face."

And Rupert learns a few other things along his path to learning about the Pagan holidays as well, such as the satisfaction of helping out his new friend, Melvin the mouse.

Rupert's Tales would make the perfect gift for a Pagan family with young children or a great book to donate to a school or library (Yule is right around the corner...)

For those who get a copy of this book (or want to learn more) be sure to check out the Friends of Rupert website!  You can find puzzles, info on book signings, workshops and purchase some gorgeous posters!



Find out more about the author and illustrator and read other reviews:

• An interview with the author and illustrator by Patti Wigington
• A review by the Pagan Dad, complete with a giveaway!
• Visit Rupert on Facebook

This is post copyright to the author. It may not be reposted, reprinted or distributed in its entirety without express written permission of the author. Links to the article can be freely shared and are very appreciated!

Bread, bread and more bread

Photo by 3268zauber via Wikimedia Commons

I picked up a copy of Taste of Home magazine's Fall Baking edition the other day.  It's jam packed with all sorts of recipes (with pictures!  I love recipes with pictures!).  It includes baking basics plus recipes for all sorts of cakes, cupcakes, cookies, brownies, bars, quick breads and yeast breads.  (There is a Halloween section, but, quite frankly, it's pretty lacking.)  The recipes seem to have been sent in by readers, and I assume they were tested by the magazine's staff.

There are dozens of recipes that I just can't wait to try - and of course, I'll be sharing what I think of them!  I'm certainly not a bread baking expert, but I do bake a lot of my own bread in the cooler months and am pretty successful creating your basic white sandwich loaf, a good focaccia and pretty decent French and Italian loaves.  So let's see if how a home-cook with some bread experience fairs with some of the tasty recipes!

I started yesterday with the Five-Topping Bread.  If you have a copy of the magazine, it's on page 103 - or you can find it on their website here.  The thing that interested me in this recipe is that it's topped with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, caraway seeds, dried minced onion and salt (I used coarse Kosher; the recipe did not specify which kind to use).  The topping reminded me of my husband's favorite "everything" bagels.

The recipe mixed up fine, rose well, and smelled wonderful in the oven as all the seeds and the onions released their aromas, mixed in with the yeasty smell of the bread. But.  (You knew that was coming, right?) But, the recipe calls for the bread (it creates 2 loaves) to be cooked on a baking sheet at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  At 20 minutes, the top of my bread was pretty well browned, the bottom was  a very dark shade of brown (the kind of brown that says "Take me out or I'm going to burn!").  I could tell when I tapped on the bottom of the loaf (it should sound hollow) that it wasn't done cooking.  So I turned down the heat to 350, wrapped the lower half of the bread in some heavy foil to try to keep it from browning any more, and cooked it for 5 more minutes.  I let it rest and cool, cut into it, and the middle was still not completely done.

Soooo, I'm thinking that I will simply use the mix of seeds and onion on the top of my regular recipe for artisan bread and be done with it, lol.   ( I use the basic boule bread recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day - simple and amazing!)

Next up in my baking trials: Herb Bubble Bread.  The recipe calls for thawed frozen bread, but I'll be whipping up a loaf to use for this.  Stay tuned!



(This is not a paid ad - I paid for my magazine and am not receiving anything for mentioning it.  I just like to bake.)


This is post  copyright to the author. It may not be reposted, reprinted or distributed in its entirety without express written permission of the author. Links to the article can be freely shared and are very appreciated!

Giveaway: Old World Witchcraft by Raven Grimassi

I admit it, I read a lot.  Fiction, non-fiction, biographies, metaphysical, backs of cereal boxes - I've been known to read the backs of shampoo bottles in the shower.  It's been a while since something got me super interested in that can't-put-it-down way.  Old World Witchcraft by Raven Grimassi did that for me.

This book starts out sharing research and discussion about the history of real witches - not fairy tale witches or the Christian church's "witches" - though comparisons are made of the two.  It then goes into discussing "Old Ways" witches.  It discusses herbs, tools and their use (my favorite being a whole new way of looking at your mortar and pestle as real spell work tools), plant sigils and more things than this small space could cover. I can honestly say that I highly recommend this book.

So how can you enter to get your own copy?  Here's what you need to do:

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!

REQUIREMENTS
Leave a message in comments saying you want to enter. 
This entry will not count if I have no way to reach you if you win.  If your profile is private, there's no blog or email connected to it, or you aren't sure,  you must leave an email address with your entries.  If a winner is picked and I have no way to contact that person, a new winner will be selected.

OPTIONAL
For extra entries, you many do any or all of the following.  Each requires a separate post in comments.

• Blog about this giveaway (1 entry), including the name of the book and a link back to this page.  Leave a comment to this post with the URL of your blog post.
• Be or become a follower of Weiser Books on Twitter. (1 entry)
• Tweet about this giveaway, with a link back to this page.  Leave the URL of your tweet in comments.  This entry is available daily (up to 7 entries; leave a comment for each individual tweet).
• Visit the Weiser Books Blog and leave a message. Leave a comment here that you did so. (1 entry)
• Swing by the Red Wheel/Wieser Books page on facebook and say hello.  Leave a comment here that you did so. (1 entry)

PLEASE NOTE: Comment moderation, as always, is on.  You won't see your post immediately, but it's there - no need to repost.  =)

Contest ends on Oct. 11, 2011 at noon EST, with a winner selected by random number generator and announced shortly thereafter.  Giveaway is open worldwide.

Entries must be in English.  Entries containing URL links not connected to this giveaway will be considered spam and deleted.

This is post (and photos) copyright to the author. It may not be reposted, reprinted or distributed in its entirety without express written permission of the author. Links to the article can be freely shared and are very appreciated!

Halloween Sock Buddies

Here's a quick, fun Halloween craft that cost almost nothing to create!  Miss M. read about it in her American Girl magazine and just had to try it!  We had everything but the socks already laying around the house.

What you need:

• Socks of almost any size, depending on what size "buddy" you want to make (we bought toddler socks at the $1 store - a dollar for a set of 2 socks gave us 4 different buddies)
• Rice for stuffing
• Assorted craft supplies for decorating: glue, pompoms, paints, markers, craft foam, google eyes, etc.

Instructions:

Fill sock with rice to form a roundish ball.

Secure closed.  

We just wrapped a rubber band around the end and cut off the extra band of the sock (which we used for wrist bands, lol!)  You could sew it closed.

Decorate.

Yep, it's that easy.

Miss M. made a variety of these: witch, Frankenstein's monster, a vampire, a black cat and a ghost.  

They turned out really cute, and we will probably make some of these at the kid end of the party for Halloween, so that everyone has something to take home!

This is post (and photos) copyright to the author. It may not be reposted, reprinted or distributed in part or entirety without express written permission of the author. Links to the article can be freely shared and are very appreciated!

Returning!

Hello all!  So I'm getting back in the blogging saddle after what feels like a lonnnnnnng break.  Though I unfortunately did not have the ability to plan out my usual 31 Days of Halloween this year, I will be hosting a few great giveaways and reposting some of my favorite Halloween/Samhain crafts, articles and guest blogs.  I hope you'll enjoy them!!